POW research - possibly Stalag Luft III ?

[alveleyhistorian]

Hi there,
I am hoping someone may be able to help me .
Robert James France ( known as Robin France) born Alveley, Shropshire 1919 and served in the Worcestershire Regiment  ?
service number 5253736
He was taken prisoner and may have been a POW for about 5yrs...possibly Stalag Luft III ??..(as in later life Robin recalled being in the same camp as Rupert Davies, who later became a famous british TV actor)
I would be very interested in finding out more ...so any advice or guidance would be much appreciated

[gortonboy]

 
Name R. J. FRANCE 
 
Rank Private
 
Regiment The Worcestershire Regiment
 
Army No 5253736
 
Camp No 8C
 
Prisoner of War No 617
 
STALAG  -  Kunau Kz Sprottau/Sagan

[bleckie]

Hi

The redcross may also have records

http://www.redcross.org.uk/What-we-do/Finding-missing-family/Other-organisations/Missing-people-in-World-War-I-and-II

Yours Aye
BruceL

[alveleyhistorian]

 
Name R. J. FRANCE 
 
Rank Private
 
Regiment The Worcestershire Regiment
 
Army No 5253736
 
Camp No 8C
 
Prisoner of War No 617
 
STALAG  -  Kunau Kz Sprottau/Sagan

Many thanks for your help, much appreciated. I know very little about POW camps..would  'STALAG  -  Kunau Kz Sprottau/Sagan' be the same of Stalag Luft III ?

[gortonboy]

hi,,i know that Sagan and Sprottau were on the river Bober,in what was Silesia,,,now modern day Poland?

[apwright]

A "Stalag Luft" held only air force personnel, hence the name! (Luft = air.) An infantryman of the Worcestershire Regiment would not be held there.

Kunau was a Dulag (Durchgangslager = transit camp) initially for Poles, but was broken up in spring 1940 and the survivors sent to for Stalag VIIIC at Sagan or Stalag VIIIA at Zgorzelec.
However, Stalag Luft III and Stalag VIIIC were on adjacent sites, so perhaps they talked through the fence!

Adrian

[Neil48]

Stalag Luft III was designated as an Airforce camp hence the Stammlager Luftwaffe.  However my father who was in 46th Royal Tank Regiment returned from the war with his prisoner of war ID tags which were marked Stalag Luft V which was in Wolfen Groditz in Germany. He was also held in a number of other camps, Lamsdorf Stalag 344, Monowitz and a number in Italy as that is where he was captured.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_German_WWII_POW_camps
The Red Cross is a good source of information

[DeeBoneham]

Stalag Luft III is the Great Escape and Wooden Horse POW camp though from different compounds...
 You might like to read http://www.b24.net/pow/greatescape.htm and there is an excellent book (mainly about RAF Bomber POW prisoners but mentions other services) called Footprints on the Sands of time by Oliver Clutton-Brock.
Dee

[GrahamSimons]

This would need a visit to the National Archives and may of course draw blank:

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/records/looking-for-person/britishpowsecondworldwar.htm

WO 344 War Office: Directorate of Military Intelligence: Liberated Prisoner of War Interrogation Questionnaires Germany  WO 344/112  FOX - FRAZER